


The Car

by cryptidbf, denounce



Series: People Like Us [7]
Category: L.A. Noire
Genre: Angst, M/M, Unresolved Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-15 22:32:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13622856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryptidbf/pseuds/cryptidbf, https://archiveofourown.org/users/denounce/pseuds/denounce
Summary: The full story of what happened on that fateful night; the night that left Cole and Stefan with a love that blinds them both.





	The Car

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry.
> 
> Anyways, this is an important scene that happens before Overworked! This is back when they're on the Traffic desk; by now, Cole and Marie have been separated for about 2 months.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> -oniyen

It’s late.

Past midnight, even— far too late for two people with such thick tension as Cole and Stefan to be holed up in a car together. They’ve been trying to ignore each other the whole time, focusing on the stolen car they’re supposed to be on a stakeout for, but it’s getting to be too much. Glances have been exchanged, ties have been loosened, and hats have come off.

Cole’s the one who made the first move— he loosened his tie first, he took off his hat second. His eyes are glued to Stefan, mostly his lips. His gaze trails down to Stefan’s jawline, then his neck, then… Cole forces himself to look away. He can’t let himself get this way, not again. He can’t allow his inner romantic to become outer— it always ends badly. But he wants it. By God, he wants it just as bad as he wants Stefan in this stuffy little car.

Stefan isn’t doing much better. His thoughts have long since gotten away from him— gone to places that aren’t really appropriate. He wants things he knows he can’t have, not with Cole, but that doesn’t stop him from imagining leaning over and kissing the daylights out of him. Or going lower, even, down to his— okay, _wait_. Too far. Way too far. He swallows hard and tugs at his already loose tie. Is it just him or has the car just gotten several degrees hotter? He feels like he’s choking.

Cole breaks the tense silence. “What now?” He’s fixated on Stefan’s face, feeling something akin to radio static crackling between them.

Stefan snaps his gaze to him. His eyes flick down for the briefest moment, then back up. He’s struggling to find words that don’t start with ‘kiss’ and end with ‘me.’ “I don’t know,” he finally manages to get out, “We’ve been out here for hours. Really starting to wonder if this guy is ever gonna actually show up.”

Cole follows his eyes, reaching up to pull anxiously at his tie. It comes loose on complete accident— not helping. Definitely not helping. “There is the chance that he’s just… asleep,” he suggests, shifting a little in his seat. “Either that or he’s gone.”

“Maybe,” Stefan says, “Seems about right that we would sit here for this long and then have it end up being for nothing.” He bites his lip in thought.

Cole exhales sharply. “It— doesn’t have to be for nothing,” he says, his voice dangerously quiet. He meets Stefan’s eyes for a moment, then they drop down to his lips.

Stefan raises his eyebrows. The car’s gotten hotter again. “What do you mean?” He asks, although he has a feeling he already knows. Is this happening? It couldn’t be. Surely, his heat-dazed mind is playing tricks on him.

But Cole leans in. He stops mere inches from Stefan, his shallow, uncharacteristically nervous breaths tingling on his lips. “Can we?”

Stefan lets out a soft, shaky laugh. “I would never say no,” he says, and he adds on all-too-eagerly, “ _Please_.”

Carefully, Cole closes the gap between them. He starts slow, tender— his experience is shining through. A hand reaches up to cup Stefan’s cheek, rubbing gently with his thumb. Stefan completely melts— mentally, he curses himself for being so _weak_. The kiss is a rare moment of perfect bliss between them; no prying eyes, no one to judge… but it comes to a swift end.

Cole pulls away with a sharp intake of air. “I—” He stops, moving back a little more and sparing a glance towards the watch on his wrist. Two forty-five, unmoving. His hand drops from Stefan’s face. God, it’s shaking. “I— I can’t do this.”

Stefan just stares at him for a moment. “It’s fine,” he says. It doesn’t feel fine. _He_ doesn’t feel fine. Quite the opposite, in fact. “Don’t worry about it. We can just forget it even happened.”

“Yes, that—” Cole averts his gaze, forcing himself to look at anything but Stefan. “That sounds— fine.” It’s not fine. Nothing’s ‘ _fine_.’ His heart’s pounding in his chest. It might be overdramatic, but— he feels like he’s going to die. Why is he reacting like _this_? “It didn’t happen.”

“It didn’t happen,” Stefan repeats, and he shifts to face the dashboard again. There’s that choking feeling from earlier. It’s ten times worse. He buries his fingers in the fabric of his pants and tries to breathe. “It didn’t happen.”

Cole nods. “Right. That’s— yes.” He pulls at his old wedding ring, the metal feeling like it’s burning his skin. Before he can even realize it, he’s setting it on the dashboard without another word.

Stefan watches him, eyes trained on his now ringless hand. He forces himself to look back out towards the street. “Maybe we’ll get lucky,” he says, “and our guy will come speeding by any minute now.” That would be ideal. The sooner he could get out of this car and distance himself, the better. He doesn’t like the way his chest is aching.

“That— is the hope, yes,” Cole says, stiffening up. He reaches up to fix his tie, straightening out his collar and effectively removing all evidence of what they had done.

Stefan is uncharacteristically quiet. He inhales. Exhales. “Yeah,” he says, and he makes the mistake of glancing towards Cole. He swallows hard— Cole looks guilty. Is it because of the kiss or something else? Stefan doesn’t want to consider what _something else_ could mean. “Don’t want to be here all night.”

Cole shakes his head. “No, neither do I,” he says, managing to keep himself from sounding like an utter mess. The bit that does shine through, though— he hopes Stefan didn’t notice. He clears his throat.

His gaze lingers on Cole for a moment— then, he snaps it back towards the road. _Keep it together_ , he tells himself, _you can’t afford to be distracted._ No, that doesn’t help in the least, but he’s pretty sure nothing can at this point. “I—” He bites the inside of his cheek. It feels like all at once Stefan has lost every word he knows. “I’m sorry.”

Cole goes dead silent, glancing back towards Stefan for a moment— his walls are down, and he hates it. He knows Stefan can see it in his eyes, and he hates it. “It’s not you,” he says, shifting slightly. He opens his mouth to say something else, but he shuts it, shaking his head and exhaling deeply. “It’s not you.”

Stefan nods. He’s still struggling to find the words to use. He didn’t know somebody could leave him feeling so _tongue tied_. “Nonetheless,” he says, “Just— felt like I should apologize. I don’t know. I— really don’t know.”

Cole runs a hand down his face, resting it on his jaw. He doesn’t look at him. “I appreciate the sentiment, Bekowsky,” he says, his voice quiet. “But— I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

“That’s—” Stefan inhales sharply. Suddenly, his eyes are stinging. “Understandable. We don’t have to talk about it at all ever, even.”

Cole sets his jaw, eyebrows furrowed. “Perhaps that’s for the best.”


End file.
